QUEER FINDS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 123, 27 May 1930, Page 7

QUEER FINDS

PILLAR BOX TREASURE

DIAMONDS AND BACON

.'■' A pound and a half of bacon, £200 in cash, an odd cheque or'two, a diamond engagement ring, horn-rimmed spectacles, theatre tickets, pay envelopes, wallets, watches, tobacco pouches. 'Lists of articles which absent-minded citizens deposit in suburban and city letter pillars, look like the beginnings of a Nimble Shilling store, says a Melbourne writer.

All kinds of queer articles are found when postmen sort their-collections from letter pillars, and, by some magic of the Department, they are nearly always returned to their owners. Wallets are most easily placed. Nearly always they contain some clue to their owner's identity, and a telephone, ring brings him to the post office, where he is glad tb retrieve what the, warm-, hearted thief, who placed it in the pillar box, for him, has left.' , ■ • • Pillar boxes reveal'that pocket-pick-ing is easiest in the winter, the season. of crowded trams and covering overcoats. The receiver outside Spencer Street Station, Melbourne, where crowds mingle before the departure of interstate expresses, is . the most prolific yielder.. Generally, too, the wallets contain train tickets for Sydney. It was not left,, however, for postnien to discover two £50 notes ana..a city firm's bank pass .book. The,girl clerk who posted them remembered her mistake when she reached the Collins. Street Bank and attempted to deposit with the teller two dozen circulars and three demands for overdue bills. Bomance entered a city postman's round when he opened a Bourke street box and wag attracted by a glittering diamond ring in a dark corner. By the time he had'completed his. round and reached the central office, however, he found'waiting for him an excited young man, accompanied by a girl to whom he'had intended posting a proposal. Instead, he had posted the ring he had, bought in his optimism, and1 when-it'was lost, he had no hesitation in telling her -what he had found so difficult in ordinary circumstances. ■''.■■ But it was all in the day's work to the postman. Since then he has handed to grateful owners monthly train tickets, fountain pens, cigarette cases, aud. all the rest of the things people post when they arc hurrying to work or - home. ,- , .■.-.• ' —; _ It's not what people post that worries the collectors; it's what they say they posted.